Ahab and Jezebel, Elijah and Elisha

Chapter 16

²⁹Ahab son of Omri became king over Israel in the thirty-eighth year of King Asa of Judah, and Ahab son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years. ³⁰Ahab son of Omri did what was displeasing to the Lord, more than all who preceded him. ³¹Not content to follow the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, he took as wife Jezebel daughter of King Ethbaal of the Phoenicians, and he went and served Baal and worshiped him. ³²He erected an altar to Baal in the temple of Baal which he built in Samaria. ³³Ahab also made a sacred post. Ahab did more to vex the Lord, the God of Israel, than all the kings of Israel who preceded him. [ . . . ]

Chapter 17

¹Elijah the Tishbite, an inhabitant of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord lives, the God of Israel whom I serve, there will be no dew or rain except at my bidding.”

²The word of the Lord came to him: ³“Leave this place; turn eastward and go into hiding by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁴You will drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” ⁵He proceeded to do as the Lord had bidden: he went, and he stayed by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. ⁶The ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and every evening, and he drank from the wadi.

⁷After some time the wadi dried up, because there was no rain in the land. ⁸And the word of the Lord came to him: ⁹“Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon, and stay there; I have designated a widow there to feed you.” ¹⁰So he went at once to Zarephath. When he came to the entrance of the town, a widow was there gathering wood. He called out to her, “Please bring me a little water in your pitcher, and let me drink.” ¹¹As she went to fetch it, he called out to her, “Please bring along a piece of bread for me.” ¹²“As the Lord your God lives,” she replied, “I have nothing baked, nothing but a handful of flour in a jar and a little oil in a jug. I am just gathering a couple of sticks, so that I can go home and prepare it for me and my son; we shall eat it and then we shall die.” ¹³“Don’t be afraid,” said Elijah to her. “Go and do as you have said; but first make me a small cake from what you have there, and bring it out to me; then make some for yourself and your son. ¹⁴For thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: The jar of flour shall not give out and the jug of oil shall not fail until the day that the Lord sends rain upon the ground.” ¹⁵She went and did as Elijah had spoken, and she and he and her household had food for a long time. ¹⁶The jar of flour did not give out, nor did the jug of oil fail, just as the Lord had spoken through Elijah.

¹⁷After a while, the son of the mistress of the house fell sick, and his illness grew worse, until he had no breath left in him. ¹⁸She said to Elijah, “What harm have I done you, O man of God, that you should come here to recall my sin and cause the death of my son?” ¹⁹“Give me the boy,” he said to her; and taking him from her arms, he carried him to the upper chamber where he was staying, and laid him down on his own bed. ²⁰He cried out to the Lord and said, “O Lord my God, will You bring calamity upon this widow whose guest I am, and let her son die?” ²¹Then he stretched out over the child three times, and cried out to the Lord, saying, “O Lord my God, let this child’s life return to his body!” ²²The Lord heard Elijah’s plea; the child’s life returned to his body, and he revived. ²³Elijah picked up the child and brought him down from the upper room into the main room, and gave him to his mother. “See,” said Elijah, “your son is alive.” ²⁴And the woman answered Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord is truly in your mouth.”

Chapter 18

¹Much later, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go, appear before Ahab; then I will send rain upon the earth.” ²Thereupon Elijah set out to appear before Ahab.

The famine was severe in Samaria. ³Ahab had summoned Obadiah, the steward of the palace. (Obadiah revered the Lord greatly. ⁴When Jezebel was killing off the prophets of the Lord, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them, fifty to a cave, and provided them with food and drink.) ⁵And Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land, to all the springs of water and to all the wadis. Perhaps we shall find some grass to keep horses and mules alive, so that we are not left without beasts.”

⁶They divided the country between them to explore it, Ahab going alone in one direction and Obadiah going alone in another direction. ⁷Obadiah was on the road, when Elijah suddenly confronted him. [Obadiah] recognized him and flung himself on his face, saying, “Is that you, my lord Elijah?” ⁸“Yes, it is I,” he answered. “Go tell your lord: Elijah is here!” ⁹But he said, “What wrong have I done, that you should hand your servant over to Ahab to be killed? ¹⁰As the Lord your God lives, there is no nation or kingdom to which my lord has not sent to look for you; and when they said, ‘He is not here,’ he made that kingdom or nation swear that you could not be found. ¹¹And now you say, ‘Go tell your lord: Elijah is here!’ ¹²When I leave you, the spirit of the Lord will carry you off I don’t know where; and when I come and tell Ahab and he does not find you, he will kill me. Yet your servant has revered the Lord from my youth. ¹³My lord has surely been told what I did when Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord, how I hid a hundred of the prophets of the Lord, fifty men to a cave, and provided them with food and drink. ¹⁴And now you say, ‘Go tell your lord: Elijah is here.’ Why, he will kill me!”

¹⁵Elijah replied, “As the Lord of Hosts lives, whom I serve, I will appear before him this very day.”

¹⁶Obadiah went to find Ahab, and informed him; and Ahab went to meet Elijah. ¹⁷When Ahab caught sight of Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?” ¹⁸He retorted, “It is not I who have brought trouble on Israel, but you and your father’s House, by forsaking the commandments of the Lord and going after the Baalim. ¹⁹Now summon all Israel to join me at Mount Carmel, together with the four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, ^awho eat at Jezebel’s table.^a

²⁰Ahab sent orders to all the Israelites and gathered the prophets at Mount Carmel. ²¹Elijah approached all the people and said, “How long will you keep hopping between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; and if Baal, follow him!” But the people answered him not a word. ²²Then Elijah said to the people, “I am the only prophet of the Lord left, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men. ²³Let two young bulls be given to us. Let them choose one bull, cut it up, and lay it on the wood, but let them not apply fire; I will prepare the other bull, and lay it on the wood, and will not apply fire. ²⁴You will then invoke your god by name, and I will invoke the Lord by name; and let us agree: the god who responds with fire, that one is God.” And all the people answered, “Very good!”

²⁵Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one bull and prepare it first, for you are the majority; invoke your god by name, but apply no fire.” ²⁶They took the bull that was given them; they prepared it, and invoked Baal by name from morning until noon, shouting, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no sound, and none who responded; so they performed a hopping dance about the altar that had been set up. ²⁷When noon came, Elijah mocked them, saying, “Shout louder! After all, he is a god. But he may be in conversation, he may be detained, or he may be on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.” ²⁸So they shouted louder, and gashed themselves with knives and spears, according to their practice, until the blood streamed over them. ²⁹When noon passed, they kept raving until the hour of presenting the meal offering. Still there was no sound, and none who responded or heeded.

³⁰Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come closer to me”; and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the damaged altar of the Lord. ³¹Then Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob—to whom the word of the Lord had come: “Israel shall be your name”—³²and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. Around the altar he made a trench large enough for two seahs of seed.^{b 33}He laid out the wood, and he cut up the bull and laid it on the wood. ³⁴And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it over the burnt offering and the wood.” Then he said, “Do it a second time”; and they did it a second time. “Do it a third time,” he said; and they did it a third time. ³⁵The water ran down around the altar, and even the trench was filled with water.

³⁶When it was time to present the meal offering, the prophet Elijah came forward and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel! Let it be known today that You are God in Israel and that I am Your servant, and that I have done all these things at Your bidding. ³⁷Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that You, O Lord, are God; for You have turned their hearts backward.”

³⁸Then fire from the Lord descended and consumed the burnt offering, the wood, the stones, and the earth; and it licked up the water that was in the trench. ³⁹When they saw this, all the people flung themselves on their faces and cried out: “The Lord alone is God, The Lord alone is God!”

⁴⁰Then Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal, let not a single one of them get away.” They seized them, and Elijah took them down to the Wadi Kishon and slaughtered them there.

⁴¹Elijah said to Ahab, “Go up, eat and drink, for there is a rumbling of [approaching] rain,” ⁴²and Ahab went up to eat and drink. Elijah meanwhile climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, crouched on the ground, and put his face between his knees. ⁴³And he said to his servant, “Go up and look toward the Sea.” He went up and looked and reported, “There is nothing.” Seven times [Elijah] said, “Go back,” ⁴⁴and the seventh time, [the servant] reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising in the west.” Then [Elijah] said, “Go say to Ahab, ‘Hitch up [your chariot] and go down before the rain stops you.’” ⁴⁵Meanwhile the sky grew black with clouds; there was wind, and a heavy downpour fell; Ahab mounted his chariot and drove off to Jezreel. ⁴⁶The hand of the Lord had come upon Elijah. He tied up his skirts and ran in front of Ahab all the way to Jezreel. [ . . . ]

Chapter 21

¹[The following events] occurred sometime afterward: Naboth the Jezreelite owned a vineyard in Jez-reel, adjoining the palace of King Ahab of Samaria. ²Ahab said to Naboth, “Give me your vineyard, so that I may have it as a vegetable garden, since it is right next to my palace. I will give you a better vineyard in exchange; or, if you prefer, I will pay you the price in money.” ³But Naboth replied, “The Lord forbid that I should give up to you what I have inherited from my fathers!” ⁴Ahab went home dispirited and sullen because of the answer that Naboth the Jezreelite had given him: “I will not give up to you what I have inherited from my fathers!” He lay down on his bed and turned away his face, and he would not eat. ⁵His wife Jezebel came to him and asked him, “Why are you so dispirited that you won’t eat?” ⁶So he told her, “I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and proposed to him, ‘Sell me your vineyard for money, or if you prefer, I’ll give you another vineyard in exchange’; but he answered, ‘I will not give my vineyard to you.’” ⁷His wife Jezebel said to him, “Now is the time to show yourself king over Israel. Rise and eat something, and be cheerful; I will get the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite for you.”

⁸So she wrote letters in Ahab’s name and sealed them with his seal, and sent the letters to the elders and the nobles who lived in the same town with Naboth. ⁹In the letters she wrote as follows: “Proclaim a fast and seat Naboth at the front of the assembly. ¹⁰And seat two scoundrels opposite him, and let them testify against him: ‘You have reviled God and king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.”

¹¹His townsmen—the elders and nobles who lived in his town—did as Jezebel had instructed them, just as was written in the letters she had sent them: ¹²They proclaimed a fast and seated Naboth at the front of the assembly. ¹³Then the two scoundrels came and sat down opposite him; and the scoundrels testified against Na-both publicly as follows: “Naboth has reviled God and king.” Then they took him outside the town and stoned him to death. ¹⁴Word was sent to Jezebel: “Naboth has been stoned to death.” ¹⁵As soon as Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, “Go and take possession of the vineyard which Naboth the Jezreelite refused to sell you for money; for Naboth is no longer alive, he is dead.” ¹⁶When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, Ahab set out for the vineyard of Na-both the Jezreelite to take possession of it.

¹⁷Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tish-bite: ¹⁸“Go down and confront King Ahab of Israel who [resides] in Samaria. He is now in Naboth’s vineyard; he has gone down there to take possession of it. ¹⁹Say to him, ‘Thus said the Lord: Would you murder and take possession? Thus said the Lord: In the very place where the dogs lapped up Naboth’s blood, the dogs will lap up your blood too.’”

²⁰Ahab said to Elijah, “So you have found me, my enemy?” “Yes, I have found you,” he replied. “Because you have committed yourself to doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord, ²¹I will bring disaster upon you. I will make a clean sweep of you, I will cut off from Israel every male belonging to Ahab, bond and free. ²²And I will make your house like the House of Jeroboam son of Nebat and like the House of Baasha son of Ahijah, because of the provocation you have caused by leading Israel to sin. ²³And the Lord has also spoken concerning Jezebel: ‘The dogs shall devour Jezebel in the field of Jezreel. ²⁴All of Ahab’s line who die in the town shall be devoured by dogs, and all who die in the open country shall be devoured by the birds of the sky.’”

(²⁵Indeed, there never was anyone like Ahab, who committed himself to doing what was displeasing to the Lord, at the instigation of his wife Jezebel. ²⁶He acted most abominably, straying after the fetishes just like the Amorites, whom the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.)

²⁷When Ahab heard these words, he rent his clothes and put sackcloth on his body. He fasted and lay in sackcloth and walked about subdued. ²⁸Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: ²⁹“Have you seen how Ahab has humbled himself before Me? Because he has humbled himself before Me, I will not bring the disaster in his lifetime; I will bring the disaster upon his house in his son’s time.”

Chapter 22

¹There was a lull of three years, with no war between Aram and Israel. ²In the third year, King Jehoshaphat of Judah came to visit the king of Israel. ³The king of Israel said to his courtiers, “You know that Ramoth-gilead belongs to us, and yet we do nothing to recover it from the hands of the king of Aram.” ⁴And he said to Jehoshaphat, “Will you come with me to battle at Ramoth-gilead?” Jehoshaphat answered the king of Israel, “I will do what you do; my troops shall be your troops, my horses shall be your horses.” ⁵But Jehoshaphat said further to the king of Israel, “Please, first inquire of the Lord.”

⁶So the king of Israel gathered the prophets, about four hundred men, and asked them, “Shall I march upon Ramoth-gilead for battle, or shall I not?” “March,” they said, “and the Lord will deliver [it] into Your Majesty’s hands.” ⁷Then Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn’t there another prophet of the Lord here through whom we can inquire?” ⁸And the king of Israel answered Jehoshaphat, “There is one more man through whom we can inquire of the Lord; but I hate him, because he never prophesies anything good for me, but only misfortune—Mic-aiah son of Imlah.” But King Jehoshaphat said, “Don’t say that, Your Majesty.” ⁹So the king of Israel summoned an officer and said, “Bring Micaiah son of Imlah at once.”

¹⁰The king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah were seated on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, on the threshing floor at the entrance of the gate of Samaria; and all the prophets were prophesying before them. ¹¹Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had provided himself with iron horns; and he said, “Thus said the Lord: With these you shall gore the Arameans till you make an end of them.” ¹²And all the other prophets were prophesying similarly, “March upon Ramoth-gilead and triumph! The Lord will deliver it into Your Majesty’s hands.”

¹³The messenger who had gone to summon Micaiah said to him: “Look, the words of the prophets are with one accord favorable to the king. Let your word be like that of the rest of them; speak a favorable word.” ¹⁴“As the Lord lives,” Micaiah answered, “I will speak only what the Lord tells me.” ¹⁵When he came before the king, the king said to him, “Micaiah, shall we march upon Ramoth-gilead for battle, or shall we not?” He answered him, “March and triumph! The Lord will deliver [it] into Your Majesty’s hands.” ¹⁶The king said to him, “How many times must I adjure you to tell me nothing but the truth in the name of the Lord?” ¹⁷Then he said, “I saw all Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd; and the Lord said, ‘These have no master; let everyone return to his home in safety.’” ¹⁸“Didn’t I tell you,” said the king of Israel to Jehoshaphat, “that he would not prophesy good fortune for me, but only misfortune?” ¹⁹But [Micaiah] said, “I call upon you to hear the word of the Lord! I saw the Lord seated upon His throne, with all the host of heaven standing in attendance to the right and to the left of Him. ²⁰The Lord asked, ‘Who will entice Ahab so that he will march and fall at Ramoth-gilead?’ Then one said thus and another said thus, ²¹until a certain spirit came forward and stood before the Lord and said, ‘I will entice him.’ ‘How?’ the Lord asked him. ²²And he replied, ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.’ Then He said, ‘You will entice and you will prevail. Go out and do it.’ ²³So the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these prophets of yours; for the Lord has decreed disaster upon you.”

²⁴Thereupon Zedekiah son of Chenaanah stepped up and struck Micaiah on the cheek, and demanded, “Which way did the spirit of the Lord pass from me to speak with you?” ²⁵And Micaiah replied, “You’ll find out on the day when you try to hide in the innermost room.” ²⁶Then the king of Israel said, “Take Micaiah and turn him over to Amon, the city’s governor, and to Prince Joash, ²⁷and say, ‘The king’s orders are: Put this fellow in prison, and let his fare be scant bread and scant water until I come home safe.’” ²⁸To which Micaiah retorted, “If you ever come home safe, the Lord has not spoken through me.” He said further, “Listen, all you peoples!”

²⁹So the king of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah marched upon Ramoth-gilead. ³⁰The king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat, “Disguise yourself and go into the battle; but you, wear your robes.” So the king of Israel went into the battle disguised. ³¹Now the king of Aram had instructed his thirty-two chariot officers: “Don’t attack anyone, small or great, except the king of Israel.” ³²So when the chariot officers saw Jehoshaphat, whom they took for the king of Israel, they turned upon him to attack him, and Jehoshaphat cried out. ³³And when the chariot officers became aware that he was not the king of Israel, they turned back from pursuing him. ³⁴Then a man drew his bow at random and he hit the king of Israel between the plates of the armor; and he said to his charioteer, “Turn the horses around and get me behind the lines; I’m wounded.” ³⁵The battle raged all day long, and the king remained propped up in the chariot facing Aram; the blood from the wound ran down into the hollow of the chariot, and at dusk he died. ³⁶As the sun was going down, a shout went through the army: “Every man to his own town! Every man to his own district.”

³⁷So the king died and was brought to Samaria. They buried the king in Samaria, ³⁸and they flushed out the chariot at the pool of Samaria. Thus the dogs lapped up his blood and the whores bathed [in it], in accordance with the word that the Lord had spoken.

³⁹The other events of Ahab’s reign, and all his actions—the ivory palace that he built and all the towns that he fortified—are all recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel. ⁴⁰Ahab slept with his fathers, and his son Ahaziah succeeded him as king. [ . . . ]

2 Kings 2

¹When the Lord was about to take Elijah up to heaven in a whirlwind, Elijah and Elisha had set out from Gil-gal. ²Elijah said to Elisha, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.” “As the Lord lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel. ³Disciples of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.”

⁴Then Elijah said to him, “Elisha, stay here, for the Lord has sent me on to Jericho.” “As the Lord lives and as you live,” said Elisha, “I will not leave you.” So they went on to Jericho. ⁵The disciples of the prophets who were at Jericho came over to Elisha and said to him, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?” He replied, “I know it, too; be silent.”

⁶Elijah said to him, “Stay here, for the Lord has sent me on to the Jordan.” “As the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you,” he said, and the two of them went on. ⁷Fifty men of the disciples of the prophets followed and stood by at a distance from them as the two of them stopped at the Jordan. ⁸Thereupon Elijah took his mantle and, rolling it up, he struck the water; it divided to the right and left, so that the two of them crossed over on dry land. ⁹As they were crossing, Elijah said to Elisha, “Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?” Elisha answered, “Let a double portion of your spirit pass on to me.” ¹⁰“You have asked a difficult thing,” he said. “If you see me as I am being taken from you, this will be granted to you; if not, it will not.” ¹¹As they kept on walking and talking, a fiery chariot with fiery horses suddenly appeared and separated one from the other; and Elijah went up to heaven in a whirlwind. ¹²Elisha saw it, and he cried out, “Oh, father, father! Israel’s chariots and horsemen!” When he could no longer see him, he grasped his garments and rent them in two.

¹³He picked up Elijah’s mantle, which had dropped from him; and he went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan. ¹⁴Taking the mantle which had dropped from Elijah, he struck the water and said, “Where is the Lord, the God of Elijah?” As he too struck the water, it parted to the right and to the left, and Elisha crossed over. ¹⁵When the disciples of the prophets at Jericho saw him from a distance, they exclaimed, “The spirit of Elijah has settled on Elisha!” And they went to meet him and bowed low before him to the ground.

¹⁶They said to him, “Your servants have fifty able men with them. Let them go and look for your master; perhaps the spirit of the Lord has carried him off and cast him upon some mountain or into some valley.” “Do not send them,” he replied. ¹⁷But they kept pressing him for a long time, until he said, “Send them.” So they sent out fifty men, who searched for three days but did not find him. ¹⁸They came back to him while he was still in Jericho; and he said to them, “I told you not to go.”

¹⁹The men of the town said to Elisha, “Look, the town is a pleasant place to live in, as my lord can see; but the water is bad and the land causes bereavement.” ²⁰He responded, “Bring me a new dish and put salt in it.” They brought it to him; ²¹he went to the spring and threw salt into it. And he said, “Thus said the Lord: I heal this water; no longer shall death and bereavement come from it!” ²²The water has remained wholesome to this day, in accordance with the word spoken by Elisha.

²³From there he went up to Bethel. As he was going up the road, some little boys came out of the town and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!” ²⁴He turned around and looked at them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. Thereupon, two she-bears came out of the woods and mangled forty-two of the children. ²⁵He went on from there to Mount Carmel, and from there he returned to Samaria. [ . . . ]

Chapter 4

¹A certain woman, the wife of one of the disciples of the prophets, cried out to Elisha: “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know how your servant revered the Lord. And now a creditor is coming to seize my two children as slaves.” ²Elisha said to her, “What can I do for you? Tell me, what have you in the house?” She replied, “Your maidservant has nothing at all in the house, except a jug of oil.” ³“Go,” he said, “and borrow vessels outside, from all your neighbors, empty vessels, as many as you can. ⁴Then go in and shut the door behind you and your children, and pour [oil] into all those vessels, removing each one as it is filled.”

⁵She went away and shut the door behind her and her children. They kept bringing [vessels] to her and she kept pouring. ⁶When the vessels were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another vessel.” He answered her, “There are no more vessels”; and the oil stopped. ⁷She came and told the man of God, and he said, “Go sell the oil and pay your debt, and you and your children can live on the rest.”

⁸One day Elisha visited Shunem. A wealthy woman lived there, and she urged him to have a meal; and whenever he passed by, he would stop there for a meal. ⁹Once she said to her husband, “I am sure it is a holy man of God who comes this way regularly. ¹⁰Let us make a small enclosed upper chamber and place a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstand there for him, so that he can stop there whenever he comes to us.” ¹¹One day he came there; he retired to the upper chamber and lay down there. ¹²He said to his servant Gehazi, “Call that Shunammite woman.” He called her, and she stood before him. ¹³He said to him, “Tell her, ‘You have gone to all this trouble for us. What can we do for you? Can we speak in your behalf to the king or to the army commander?’” She replied, “I live among my own people.” ¹⁴“What then can be done for her?” he asked. “The fact is,” said Gehazi, “she has no son, and her husband is old.” ¹⁵“Call her,” he said. He called her, and she stood in the doorway. ¹⁶And Elisha said, “At this season next year, you will be embracing a son.” She replied, “Please, my lord, man of God, do not delude your maidservant.”

¹⁷The woman conceived and bore a son at the same season the following year, as Elisha had assured her. ¹⁸The child grew up. One day, he went out to his father among the reapers. ¹⁹[Suddenly] he cried to his father, “Oh, my head, my head!” He said to a servant, “Carry him to his mother.” ²⁰He picked him up and brought him to his mother. And the child sat on her lap until noon; and he died. ²¹She took him up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and left him and closed the door. ²²Then she called to her husband: “Please, send me one of the servants and one of the she-asses, so I can hurry to the man of God and back.” ²³But he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither new moon nor sabbath.” She answered, “It’s all right.”

²⁴She had the ass saddled, and said to her servant, “Urge [the beast] on;^c see that I don’t slow down unless I tell you.” ²⁵She went on until she came to the man of God on Mount Carmel. When the man of God saw her from afar, he said to his servant Gehazi, “There is that Shunammite woman. ²⁶Go, hurry toward her and ask her, ‘How are you? How is your husband? How is the child?’” “We are well,” she replied. ²⁷But when she came up to the man of God on the mountain, she clasped his feet. Gehazi stepped forward to push her away; but the man of God said, “Let her alone, for she is in bitter distress; and the Lord has hidden it from me and has not told me.” ²⁸Then she said, “Did I ask my lord for a son? Didn’t I say: ‘Don’t mislead me’?”

²⁹He said to Gehazi, “Tie up your skirts, take my staff in your hand, and go. If you meet anyone, do not greet him; and if anyone greets you, do not answer him. And place my staff on the face of the boy.” ³⁰But the boy’s mother said, “As the Lord lives and as you live, I will not leave you!” So he arose and followed her.

³¹Gehazi had gone on before them and had placed the staff on the boy’s face; but there was no sound or response. He turned back to meet him and told him, “The boy has not awakened.” ³²Elisha came into the house, and there was the boy, laid out dead on his couch. ³³He went in, shut the door behind the two of them, and prayed to the Lord. ³⁴Then he mounted [the bed] and placed himself over the child. He put his mouth on its mouth, his eyes on its eyes, and his hands on its hands, as he bent over it. And the body of the child became warm. ³⁵He stepped down, walked once up and down the room, then mounted and bent over him. Thereupon, the boy sneezed seven times, and the boy opened his eyes. ³⁶[Elisha] called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite woman,” and he called her. When she came to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” ³⁷She came and fell at his feet and bowed low to the ground; then she picked up her son and left.

³⁸Elisha returned to Gilgal. There was a famine in the land, and the disciples of the prophets were sitting before him. He said to his servant, “Set the large pot [on the fire] and cook a stew for the disciples of the prophets.” ³⁹So one of them went out into the fields to gather sprouts. He came across a wild vine and picked from it wild gourds, as many as his garment would hold. Then he came back and sliced them into the pot of stew, for they did not know [what they were]; ⁴⁰and they served it for the men to eat. While they were still eating of the stew, they began to cry out: “O man of God, there is death in the pot!” ^d And they could not eat it. ⁴¹“Fetch some flour,” [Elisha] said. He threw it into the pot and said, “Serve it to the people and let them eat.” And there was no longer anything harmful in the pot.

⁴²A man came from Baal-shalishah and he brought the man of God some bread of the first reaping—twenty loaves of barley bread, and some fresh grain in his sack. And [Elisha] said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” ⁴³His attendant replied, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” But he said, “Give it to the people and let them eat. For thus said the Lord: They shall eat and have some left over.” ⁴⁴So he set it before them; and when they had eaten, they had some left over, as the Lord had said.

Chapter 5

¹Naaman, commander of the army of the king of Aram, was important to his lord and high in his favor, for through him the Lord had granted victory to Aram. But the man, though a great warrior, was a leper. ²Once, when the Arameans were out raiding, they carried off a young girl from the land of Israel, and she became an attendant to Naaman’s wife. ³She said to her mistress, “I wish Master could come before the prophet in Samaria; he would cure him of his leprosy.” ⁴[Naaman] went and told his lord just what the girl from the land of Israel had said. ⁵And the king of Aram said, “Go to the king of Israel, and I will send along a letter.”

He set out, taking with him ten talents of silver, six thousand shekels of gold, and ten changes of clothing. ⁶He brought the letter to the king of Israel. It read: “Now, when this letter reaches you, know that I have sent my courtier Naaman to you, that you may cure him of his leprosy.” ⁷When the king of Israel read the letter, he rent his clothes and cried, “Am I God, to deal death or give life, that this fellow writes to me to cure a man of leprosy? Just see for yourselves that he is seeking a pretext against me!”

⁸When Elisha, the man of God, heard that the king of Israel had rent his clothes, he sent a message to the king: “Why have you rent your clothes? Let him come to me, and he will learn that there is a prophet in Israel.”

⁹So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and halted at the door of Elisha’s house. ¹⁰Elisha sent a messenger to say to him, “Go and bathe seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh shall be restored and you shall be clean.” ¹¹But Naaman was angered and walked away. “I thought,” he said, “he would surely come out to me, and would stand and invoke the Lord his God by name, and would wave his hand toward the spot, and cure the affected part. ¹²Are not the Amanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? I could bathe in them and be clean!” And he stalked off in a rage.

¹³But his servants came forward and spoke to him. “Sir,” they said, “if the prophet told you to do something difficult, would you not do it? How much more when he has only said to you, ‘Bathe and be clean.’” ¹⁴So he went down and immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had bidden; and his flesh became like a little boy’s, and he was clean. ¹⁵Returning with his entire retinue to the man of God, he stood before him and exclaimed, “Now I know that there is no God in the whole world except in Israel! So please accept a gift from your servant.” ¹⁶But he replied, “As the Lord lives, whom I serve, I will not accept anything.” He pressed him to accept, but he refused. ¹⁷And Naaman said, “Then at least let your servant be given two mule-loads of earth; for your servant will never again offer up burnt offering or sacrifice to any god, except the Lord. ¹⁸But may the Lord pardon your servant for this: When my master enters the temple of Rimmon to bow low in worship there, and he is leaning on my arm so that I must bow low in the temple of Rimmon—when I bow low in the temple of Rimmon, may the Lord pardon your servant in this.” ¹⁹And he said to him, “Go in peace.”

When he had gone some distance from him, ²⁰Gehazi, the attendant of Elisha the man of God, thought: “My master has let that Aramean Naaman off without accepting what he brought! As the Lord lives, I will run after him and get something from him.” ²¹So Gehazi hurried after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he alighted from his chariot to meet him and said, “Is all well?” ²²“All is well,” he replied. “My master has sent me to say: Two youths, disciples of the prophets, have just come to me from the hill country of Ephraim. Please give them a talent of silver and two changes of clothing.” ²³Naaman said, “Please take two talents.” He urged him, and he wrapped the two talents of silver in two bags and gave them, along with two changes of clothes, to two of his servants, who carried them ahead of him. ²⁴When [Gehazi] arrived at the citadel, he took [the things] from them and deposited them in the house. Then he dismissed the men and they went their way.

²⁵He entered and stood before his master; and Elisha said to him, “Where have you been, Gehazi?” He replied, “Your servant has not gone anywhere.” ²⁶Then [Elisha] said to him, “Did not my spirit go along when a man got down from his chariot to meet you? Is this a time to take money in order to buy clothing and olive groves and vineyards, sheep and oxen, and male and female slaves? ²⁷Surely, the leprosy of Naaman shall cling to you and to your descendants forever.” And as [Gehazi] left his presence, he was snow-white with leprosy.